A RETIRED RAF officer and a project manager this week became civic leaders of two Ryedale towns.

Coun Brian Baker was elected mayor of Pickering after a year as the deputy, while Coun Joe Coughlan took on the role of Kirkbymoorside’s town mayor.

Coun Baker, a councillor for three years, spent 42 years in the RAF reaching the rank of Flight Lieutentant and working as an air traffic controller at stations at Dishforth and Topcliffe. He also served in North Ireland and The Falklands.

He and his wife Joy, a Marie Curie nurse, moved to Pickering 30 years ago to be near her mother, who also lived in the town.

During his term of office Coun Baker, a Hertfordshire man, hopes to see the Pride in Pickering campaign gather pace. “It has proved a great success,” he said.

The new mayor wants to develop more interaction with the town’s young people and to see the “eyesore” site at the junction of the A170 and Vivis Lane developed.

His and his wife have two sons and a daughter.

At Kirkbymoorside, Coun Coughlan has been a member of the town authority for two years, and lived there for five years.

Born in Cheshire, he spent his early life in Leeds then moved around the country working as a project manager specialising in governance and infrastructure, with educational bodies, the United Nations, and other institutions.

He has also worked in the Far East and parts of Europe including Italy.

In his professional career, Coun Coughlan said he had developed a particular interest in water scarcity and water stress.

Coun Coughlan moved to North Yorkshire to work as an administrator for the Ampleforth Abbey Trust and became involved in the Kirkbymoorside Renaissance Market Town initiative. He is now its chairman, and is also chairman of the trustees of the local Scout movement and a member of the Catenian branch.

On Kirkbymoorside’s future, he said he was keen to more employment created and for the town’s economy to be sustainable. “Kirkbymoorside has double the national rate of men working in manufacturing and we have global leaders in the field of high technology. The town has a great future in that field as well as tourism.”

He is keen to see the recently-formed Town Traders’ Association become a strong voice, working with the council, and to see a work placement unit developed for local young people.